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Krista Goodin is a planner in a city that, judging by the looks of it, doesn’t much like to plan. But she seems optimistic that so-called “smart growth” is becoming a guiding principle in Baton Rouge and throughout Louisiana, and not just a catch phrase.

“I got my master’s at LSU and had trouble finding a job, so I moved to Florida,” she says. “When I moved back in 2004, I came from a state that mandated planning to a state where some municipalities had planning, but it wasn’t really mandated or enforced. The change that I’ve seen over the last five years has been tremendous.”

Today, she says, every major metro area in the state either already has a master plan or is working on one. She credits the Center for Planning Excellence, which held its fourth annual Smart Growth Summit late last month, with helping to drive the conversation after 2005’s hurricanes. Now, even largely rural parishes like the Felicianas and small towns like Jena are creating blueprints to guide their future growth, rather than reacting to new developments as they happen.

Goodin, a senior planner with Fenstermaker, directs the local section of the American Planning Association, and was recently appointed to the Complete Streets Work Group in the Department of Transportation and Development. The group is working on guidelines for making state and federally funded streets fully accessible to walkers, bikers and transit riders—not just drivers.

1. Tell me about the Complete Streets resolution [Senate Concurrent Resolution 110 of the Legislature’s 2009 regular session].

The resolution is to form a set of Complete Streets policy guidelines. The next step would be to file legislation in 2010. We’re looking at best practices, model ordinances, what some of the other states are doing that are similar to Louisiana.

2. Give me an example of how it might work in practice.

When you get federal funding for a new roadway or a retrofit, you could take that opportunity to figure out, “What can we do to improve the safety for all users?” It’s different for every roadway and every type of roadway.

3. Given the projected state budget shortfall and the $14 billion backlog at DOTD, what chance does a Complete Streets approach really have?

Those are legitimate concerns. One of the things we’ll be looking at is, what are the costs vs. the benefits? What people forget is it’s cheaper to build it right the first time than having to go back and fix it later. A lot of other communities, when they have to do an overlay and they have, say, a 5-foot shoulder, they’ll go ahead and just stripe that as a bike lane. So there are a lot of easy ways that are very cost effective.

4. The city recently put down some striping and symbols on streets to indicate bike usage, but I haven’t noticed any more people biking.

It’s a start. It makes sure the motorists and the bicyclists understand what their roles are. A driver says, “What is that on the road? Oh, it’s a bicyclist.” So they’re aware that a bicyclist can use the road. It’s just a matter of letting people understand they have to share the road.

5. What’s the logical next step in terms of bike lanes or sidewalks?

Right now, a developer is required to put in sidewalks. What isn’t happening so often is the connectivity of making sure that sidewalk is going to go somewhere. I’ve seen them stop in the middle of the road somewhere, then it picks up on the other side somewhere down the street. The best way to implement Complete Streets, when you’re doing an improvement to an existing street, is by saying, “Does it need a bus stop? Does it need a bike lane? Where is it going to connect to?” I think some of our leadership understands we have to think differently about how our network performs.

6. Speaking of leadership, technically we have rules mandating sidewalks and street connectivity, but historically the city keeps granting exceptions. Do you think that’s starting to change?

I don’t know enough to know whether it’s changing. What I’m focusing on is the new comprehensive plan, and hoping that’s going to be our next step in changing Baton Rouge. Right now, I don’t think the Horizon Plan has a strong vision for where we want to be. I’m hoping this new comprehensive plan will create a new vision for what East Baton Rouge wants to look like in 30 years.

7. What about changes in city-parish government? There’s been a lot of talk about structural changes at the Department of Public Works, for example.

Another opportunity is stronger cooperation across city departments. Right now, the planning commission staff works independently from the Department of Public Works. You have transportation over here in the Planning Commission, but you have DPW with the responsibility of implementing it. It would be nice if they were all in the same building, so they could interact a little more closely.

8. Will Baton Rouge ever be a place that works and feels like a real city, as opposed to a smattering of developments?

I’ve been communicating with a gentleman who’s moving to Baton Rouge from California, and I asked him if he needed any suggestions of neighborhoods. He said, “I want a neighborhood that’s close to a school, parks and I can walk to stores.” I think we have some people now who are interested in taking Baton Rouge to the next step. How we get there can be debated.

9. It sounds like you would like to see the city-parish promote infill development over greenfield development. How do you do that? Impact fees can be very controversial.

You can provide disincentives, and you can provide incentives, like tax incentives for redeveloping infill areas. In planning, we always start with, what are the areas that we don’t want to develop? Then, what are the areas we want to invest in? What are the areas with existing infrastructure? Are there opportunities to create density? A lot of developers understand now that if there is a guide for how a community wants to grow, it’s more predictable for them.

10. So what did you tell the man from California?

I haven’t responded yet [laughs].